It looks like the flu season has a slow start this year, but the public health specialists say that Americans should still be on high alert. They explain that a slow start doesn’t necessarily mean that the flu season will be mild.

In fact, it might indicate that the worst is yet to come. The U.S. CDC and health professionals underline that the vaccine is much more efficient that the nasal mist. As such, our best bet is to get the flu shot as soon as possible.

Those who get vaccinated have a lower risk of catching the flu by fifty to sixty percent, based on the CDC estimates. Although vaccinated people can still get sick, they will have a milder form of flu compared to those who go unvaccinated.

The agency’s latest report has revealed that there have been 49 confirmed cases across Kentucky this year. Kent Koster, the Director of the Purchase District Health Department, says that the flu rate is most likely higher as some cases are not reported.

However, he adds that no case has been reported in McCracken County since December 10. Koster says that this year’s flu season is very similar to the previous one so far. Last year, after a slow start, the illness was more prevalent in February and March.

Unfortunately, the public health specialists cannot predict the length, timing, and severity of this season because it always varies due to several influencing factors. This illness is usually more common during January and February, so Americans are strongly recommended to get vaccinated as they still have plenty of time.

People who are more prone to develop complications are prompted to get the flu shot. More precisely, these complications include severe dehydration, sinus infections, ear infections, and bacterial pneumonia.

Those most at risk are pregnant women, senior patients, children, people with weak immune systems and patients with chronic medical conditions like diabetes, congestive heart failure, and asthma.

According to the statistics, roughly 49,000 people may die during this flu season. In 2015, the Americans spent around $5.8 billion on medical visits and medications. Public health specialists stress that young adults and teenagers can also catch the flu, even if they are healthy. However, they are less likely to develop complications.

The Columbus Zoo in Ohio has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Colo, the oldest gorilla born in captivity. The zoo officials combined “Columbus” and “Ohio” and came up with the name Colo for the western lowland gorilla.

The female was born in 1956 and became the oldest gorilla on the planet in 2012 at the age of 56. The normal life expectancy of an adult gorilla is between 30 and 40 years. The experts underline that although Colo has just entered the seventh decade of her life, she is still doing well thanks to the efforts of the zoo staff.

The officials say that Colo is not just the oldest gorilla but also a symbol of this species which has been severely affected by habitat loss and poaching over the past few decades. In the 1950s, the biologists didn’t know much about this ape’s pregnancy.

Also, Colo was brought a few weeks sooner than the Zoo officials expected. A video about Colo’s life was made in 2009 presenting the story of this amazing gorilla. The narrator tells how a zookeeper found the abandoned baby gorilla on an enclosure floor on December 22, 1956.

The zoo staff took care of the little ape, which would later become the oldest gorilla in the world. Two years after she had been born, Colo was introduced to Bongo, a male gorilla which became her mate and life-long companion.

The two gorillas spent 25 years together, time during which Colo gave birth to three gorillas, a male, and two females. In time, the offspring brought Colo 16 grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.

In addition to this, Colo is the great-great-grandmother of three other gorillas. The latest gorilla brought to the Columbus Zoo is a male, called JJ, which is Colo’s great-grandson. Although the female lives close to other groups of gorillas, the keepers built her a special enclosure.

Audra Meinelt, the Congo Expedition assistant curator at the zoo, says that Colo is more comfortable being alone in her enclosure, rather than spending much of her time with larger groups.

Meinelt adds that Colo has been dealing with arthritis over the past few years. Fortunately, the keepers give her dietary supplements to tackle stiffness. Also, the enclosure was modified to stimulate Colo to use her feet and hands more.

The oldest gorilla in the world is also a picky eater. According to Dana Hatcher, the Zoo’s manager of animal nutrition, Colo no longer likes strawberries, oranges, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, green beans, and zucchini. Even so, she has a healthy diet made of probiotics, B vitamins, iceberg lettuce, and brewer’s yeast among others.

Some doctors believe that long-term antibiotics might be efficient in treating ear infections in children.

Recent research suggests that a shorter use of antibiotics is ineffective against ear infections in children and it doesn’t reduce side effects.

The scientists have long been trying to reduce the use of antibiotics in children because they want to prevent bacteria from becoming resistant to medications. If this happens, the bacteria will become superbugs, and patients will have a higher risk of dying from mild infections.

During the latest study, scientists analyzed 520 children with ages between six and 23 months old suffering from acute middle ear infection, a childhood illness which is quite common at this age.

First, the researchers divided the participants into two groups. Fifty percent of the kids received ten days of amoxicillin-clavulanate, whereas the other fifty percent received the antibiotic for five days and a placebo for the other five.

As the medication was distributed randomly among the children, the clinicians, researchers, and parents didn’t know which child received a placebo. However, the scientists tracked all participants to see whether their symptoms would get worse.

Therefore, the doctors checked the children’s health on a regular basis. In addition to this, the researchers monitored the participants to see whether they had antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their throats.

At the end of the study, the experts discovered that 34 percent of the kids who received the treatment for five days were still sick. On the other hand, among those who took the antibiotic for ten days, just 16 percent still had the ear infection.

Furthermore, the symptoms were more severe in the group who received the treatment for a shorter period. Also, those who took the treatment for ten days experienced no side-effects. Dr. Alejandro Hoberman, one of the co-authors of the study from the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, says that the results are more than surprising.

Dr. Hoberman confessed he also expected that a shorter use of antibiotics would have fewer side-effects. Nevertheless, it was not the case in the latest study. Rates of the most common adverse effects, such as diaper rash and diarrhea, were almost identical among all participants.

Still, the authors underline that the findings cannot be applied to kids older than two years and adults. Hoberman’s team will continue the investigation to find out more about the risks of antibiotics in treating childhood ear infections.

The researchers studying the Mariana Trench have recently discovered a new baleen whale call which has been puzzling them. The mysterious sound lasts maximum 3.5 seconds, and it was recorded multiple times between Autumn 2014 and Spring 2015 in the depths of the Mariana Trench.

The Marine National Monument protects this ecosystem. Although the scientists have been studying for a long time the sounds made by whales, the baleen whale call is something they have never heard before because they couldn’t identify any geologic or human origin.

The sound frequencies range between 38 hertz and 8,000 hertz. The study was conducted by a group of experts from Oregon State University. The researchers say that the baleen whale sounds are quite distinct from other man-made sounds.

Also, the noise doesn’t resemble the sounds originating from geophysical sources, including the wind, rain, earthquakes, and ice just to name a few. This is how scientists concluded that the sound might come from a biological source.

The only living creature which might have produced sounds of such high frequencies was a whale. Therefore, the team believes that it might be a new baleen whale call which hasn’t been discovered before.

Even if the sound is unique, the researchers were able to associate it with the sounds made by dwarf minke whales, which are also baleen whales. They listened to recordings of high-frequency sounds heard in the waters of the Great Barrier Reefs.

Five years ago, ocean researcher Jason Gedamke concluded that the sound he called the “Star Wars” sound was made by dwarf minke whales in the Great Barrier Reef. Although it might sound funny, the scientists described it like a combination of a firing laser gun and an oil drum beating.

The new baleen whale sound is called the “Western Pacific Biotwang.” Because the two sounds are similar, the researchers believe that they are produced by the same type of whale. The scientists underline that they are not sure what kind of baleen whale lives in the depths of the Mariana Trench.

Therefore, they say that they need more data such as visual, acoustic, and genetic verification to establish what is the source of the sounds.

Based on the recent reports, Japan and South Korea authorities culled many chickens to deal with the outbreak of bird flu. According to the officials from the South Korean Agriculture Ministry, roughly 2.4 million birds have been recently culled, bringing the total number to 18.4 million.

Never before have so many birds been killed in such short notice to contain an outbreak of avian flu. The first infected birds were discovered on November 18th. The experts underline that the highly contagious H5N6 strain is much more dangerous that the H5N8 strain which devastated bird farms over the past two years before being contained.

The officials added that the H5N8 strain was also found earlier this months in the feces of migratory birds, but it hasn’t been detected at any poultry farm. On the other, Japan authorities on Hokkaido ordered the slaughter of roughly 210,000 birds because a poultry farm in Shimizu tested positive for bird flu.

This is the fifth avian flu outbreak in Japan since November. It is worth mentioning that approximately 800,000 chickens have been culled until now. The H5N8 strain has also hit Israel and several European countries. Around 30,000 ducks and turkeys were slaughtered by German authorities.

Furthermore, France is on high alert after bird flu has been detected in some parts of the country. The H5N8 virus was found at a British farm on Friday as well. The H5N8 strain first hit China in 2014.

Then, it spread in many Asian countries, including Japan and South Korea. After it affected the poultry farms in Russia, this virus hit other European countries. The experts are concerned that the H5N8 strain might have arrived in North America too.

Before this virus, it was the H5N1 strain which was detected in China two decades ago. This strain became a public health concern in 2004 because it infected people throughout East Asia. By 2006, the H5N1 virus had already affected Europe and Africa as well.

Scientists are worried that the same might happen with the H5N6 and the H5N8 bird flu outbreaks. If they infect thousands of migrating birds again, this virus will easily spread across the world, affecting not just poultry farms but the entire avifauna. As such, the governments will take active measures to contain the current outbreaks.

Colorado plans to kills many bears and mountain lions to help the mule deer population.

Although many wildlife groups and conservationists have been strongly opposing Colorado’s plan to kill black bears and mountain lions, the state officials are determined to use this strategy to facilitate the recovery of the mule deer population.

There are just over 400,000 mule deer in Colorado. Colorado Parks And Wildlife set a target population of between 525,000 and 575,000. In the nineteenth century, both mule deer and white-tailed deer were so massively hunted that they almost became extinct.

As such, hunters simply decided that they must stop hunting them. Thanks to the state and federal conservation laws which took effect in 1900, the deer population has successfully recovered.

Starting from the 1970s, energy development expanded in Western Colorado, and the mule deer numbers started to drop down. For instance, the White River herd has declined from 100,000 deer to just 32,000.

Fortunately, the herds are stable in the northern and central Colorado, as well as those in the eastern Plains. It is worth mentioning that white-tailed deer are bigger than mule deer. Also, mule deer are widely spread in the Grand Canyon, South Rim, the Yosemite Valley, and many parts of Colorado.

Mule deer living in these areas are not afraid of humans because hunting is prohibited, and people often come across these animals. Mountain lions usually prey on mule deer. Plus, bears, coyotes, and wolves hunt this species too.

Nevertheless, specialists underline that natural predation has nothing to do with the mule deer decline in Colorado. Even pro-hunting organizations, such as the National Wildlife Federation and the Mule Deer Foundation, stress that the habitat loss is the main cause influencing this decline.

According to Brian Kurzel, the NWF executive director, CPW biologists have confirmed that residential and energy development had detrimental effects on the environment causing habitat degradation.

In other words, the state officials should be focusing on this factor instead of killing black bears and mountain lions. In addition to this, most hunters agree with biologists saying that the state’s plan is both ineffective and expensive.

Many wildlife specialists, hunters, and conservationists say that CPW’s decision is influenced by money. More precisely, hunting generates roughly $693 million in benefits in NW Colorado alone.

In 2015, hunters harvested 34,000 mule deer, and 90 percent of the revenue from fishing and hunting licenses went to the CPW.

Firefighters and paramedics might have been exposed to potentially-deadly ricin powder.

An Alabama federal terrorism response training center claims that it may have accidentally exposed over 9,600 students, paramedics, and firefighters to ricin powder.

The public health specialists explain that the problem might originate from an outside lab which has been mistakenly shipping the potentially deadly toxin since 2011. Scientists use castor beans to make ricin powder which can be deadly in small doses.

The officials from the federal training center say that they requested a type of ricin which was supposed to be safe. On the other hand, Toxin Technology claims that the ricin products were labeled as “RCA60,” which means that the federal training center must have known that the ricin powder was toxic.

Toxin Technology is the Florida-based company which provided the center with nine shipments since 2011. The authorities haven’t found out yet why the staff from the training center didn’t realize that they were using such a dangerous substance.

It is worth mentioning that ricin poisoning cannot be treated, so it can be deadly. Until the investigation is over, the center won’t continue the training with other biological agents, including anthrax.

The investigators find it hard to believe that during all this time, the staff didn’t verify what kind of ricin powder they received. In other words, although the vendor might be at fault, verifying the shipments should have been part of the standard procedure, especially when it comes to using biological agents for training purposes.

According to FEMA spokesperson Alexa Lopez, no one has been poisoned during the exposure. Fortunately, everyone was wearing protective equipment during the training. Nevertheless, many U.S. security experts underline that this issue points to the fact that the country’s biodefense facilities lack safety practices.

These toxic substances, including those which can cause plague, botulism, and anthrax, are commonly used by many university, military, and government laboratories. The purpose of their use is for scientific research as well as for creating protection gear, medical treatments, and vaccines.

Two other incidents involving the accidental use of anthrax occurred over the past two years in the United States because of which thousands of people were put at risk. As such, the U.S. security specialists will take active measures to prevent such potentially deadly events in the future.

A school in Centennial was closed because a Norovirus outbreak affected around 40 children ages between two and 14 years. There are around two hundred kids studying at the Shepherd of the Hills School.

According to the officials, roughly twenty percent of the children experienced the symptoms associated with the illness. Some parents and volunteers spent many hours disinfecting action figures and Legos to make sure that the Norovirus outbreak won’t take its toll on other children as well.

Experts will use an anti-bacterial solution to address this issue. Although they are a bit scared, the parents appreciate that the school took active measures on short notice to prevent Norovirus from spreading.

The public health specialists explain that Norovirus causes diarrhea and cramping vomiting. Also, it is common during the winter and very contagious. They further underline that people should wash their hands frequently to avoid getting infected with this winter vomiting bug.

This infection attacks the intestines and the stomach. That is why most doctors refer to it as the stomach flu. The risk of outbreaks is higher in areas where people have close contact such as hospitals, nursing homes, restaurant, cruise ships, and even schools.

People can contract Norovirus by getting in contact with contaminated water in wells, swimming pools, and recreational lakes just to name a few. Also, raw or undercooked oysters, clams, and other shellfish increase the risk of infection too.

Consumers can get infected if they consume drinks and foods which were touched by sick food handlers who have a poor hygiene management. Also, the Norovirus infection can be contracted from surfaces, including doorknobs.

Although any person who ingests this virus can get sick, those most at risk are seniors and older children. People who have previously been infected can contract the virus again if they are exposed to different types of Norovirus, or if the last illness occurred more than two years ago.

Common symptoms include abdominal pain, tiredness, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, chills, headache, and muscle aches. The Norovirus symptoms usually appear within one and two days after the exposure and last between one and three days. As this disease is often mild, it doesn’t need treatment. Patients are usually recommended to rest and drink fluids.

Eman Ahmed, the world’s heaviest woman will be helped by Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala.

Although Eman Ahmed is the heaviest woman in the world because she weighs around 1,102 pounds, she is not proud of holding this record.

According to her younger sister, Shaimaa Ahmed, Eman has had a hard life because she couldn’t enjoy her childhood and youth as most people. Instead, she has been fighting with her condition for thirty-six years.

Eman’s family says that she has been almost trapped in her bedroom for the past twenty years. Worse, Eman is unable to speak or move because she suffered a stroke in 2014. Fortunately, Shaimaa initiated a social media campaign, and her efforts paid off.

Many people are now interested in helping Eman in her battle with obesity. Better still, her condition caught the attention of Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala, an excellent surgeon in Mumbai who started a fundraising program to collect enough money so that Eman could fly to India.

Dr. Lakdawala’s plan is to make sure Eman will eventually weigh less than 220 pounds. However, it would be impossible for her to lose 800 pounds, so she will have to bear with several operational procedures.

According to Dr. Lakdawala, Eman is fighting to survive every day. Even if the world record in the Guinness Book is held by Pauline Potter from the U.S., nobody knew about Eman until her sister started the campaign.

It is worth mentioning that Potter weighs roughly 643 pounds, with over 500 pounds less than Eman. Shaimaa says that her older sister had thyroid problems ever since she was just a child.

At birth, Eman already weighed eleven pounds. When she was eleven, the world’s heaviest woman started to have weight problems. According to her family, she was no longer able to go to school because she became lethargic.

Also, she was unable to walk because her legs couldn’t carry such a weight. Shaimaa explained that Eman’s condition got so bad that she was able to move only on her knees. Since then, her parents would drive Eman across Alexandria, but she didn’t leave the car.

As she is the world’s heaviest woman, there is no wheelchair that can fit Eman, so her life has been even harder for the past two decades. However, Shaimaa underlines that her older sister has always been optimistic. Now, Eman hopes that Dr. Lakdawala will help her.

Nicotine in e-cigarettes affects the development of brain among children and teenagers.

Based on the recent reports, e-cigarettes and any other vaping products will most likely face limits, restrictions, and high taxes starting from next year. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy requests the government to take active measures against this widely-spread issue.

According to Dr. Kelder, a professor at University of Texas School of Public Health, underlines that e-cigarettes are especially dangerous for young users, who will become addicted to nicotine and develop the same smoking-related conditions as regular smokers.

Experts explain that nicotine has a negative impact on the brain development of an adolescent, causing addiction as well. Dr. Kelder says that little is known about e-cigarettes, meaning that the manufacturers haven’t proven yet that these vaping products are safe.

He further adds that these electronic devices release toxic particles produced by flavorings and solvents. Although these dangerous chemicals might be fewer than those used in traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes cannot be considered 100 percent harmless.

In addition to this, there is no scientific proof that vaping helps people quit smoking. Many e-cigarette users confessed that they were not aware that those electronic devices contained nicotine.

Although some of them are nicotine-free, they still contain dangerous chemicals which are carcinogenic. According to the statistics, e-cigarettes are the most popular tobacco products among teenagers and children.

Also, recent research has revealed that most vaping products contain nicotine, and the problem is that they affect the brain development not just in children and teenagers, but also in young adults.

This process stops by the age of 25, so even if you are 23 years old and you start smoking or vaping, you can’t be sure that your brain won’t suffer some changes in two years. Even if some people believe that vaping helps you quit smoking, experts have discovered that former smokers remain addicted to nicotine.

Worse, many teenagers and children who never smoked before decided to try e-cigarettes. Also, those who are already vaping are more likely to turn to smoking later in life. Although the smoke released by these vaping products is odorless, it still lingers in the air.

Plus, it contains dangerous carcinogens which increase the risk of lung cancer and other conditions in users. Based on the future regulations, retailers might be prohibited from selling e-cigarettes and other vaping products to children and teenagers under 21.